Vidiot wrote:
"Don't kid yourselves, guys.
The Org has given every indication so far that they will not budge on this, and damn the consequences.
From their perspective, they don't dare".
Respectfully, I could not disagree more.
This issue is hugely different from JW rhetoric on hallmark JW doctrines and policies.
For example, adult JWs often proudly take explicit stands against blood transfusions and are individually left to face the medical consequences. By contrast, the obvious neglect of child safety in the context of sexual abuse allegations within the organization threatens to engulf the organization in huge monetary repurcussions. No amount of legal doubletalk will do them any good.
Besides, of all issues that JWs would love to go down fighting for, this is perhaps the least preferred one. It is frankly shameful.
For decades, JW organization has pilloried the churches of Christendom- Catholics in particular, over child abuse in church parishes. And now it is revealed that JW organization has been slyly hypocritical on this very issue. The Royal Commission has unearthed a high level of either "inadequate" and/or "wrong" organizational policy on responding to allegations of child sexual abuse.
Already in other countries such as Britain and the States (and now looming in Spain,) legal action against individual JWs or the organization has cost millions with no end in sight.
Never underestimate the power of Court costs and penalties to "shape" and influence religious doctrine and practice.
To be clear: This is not the issue JW organization wants to make a stand on. Preaching their variation of the good news - they'd fight and die for. Refusing blood they'd die for.
Defending inadequate and wrong policies on child protection? No way.
By way of early indications of the organization NOT doubling down, listen to Geoffrey Jackson's obsequious responses to Judge McClleland during the hearing in July 2015 and now, listen to an Australian JW spokesman quoted in the Australian media who speaks very mildly about the organization "wanting to learn".
Yes, the scene is set for a re-thinking of JW organization's approach to child safety.
Stay tuned in 2017.